WILLMAR–In front of a great home crowd for the third straight night, the Willmar Stingers dropped to 1-2 on the season with a 5-1 loss Saturday to the Duluth Huskies.  In town for a two game set, the Huskies had a hard time figuring out Stingers righty Charley Olson.  In his first start for Willmar, the Georgia State junior went seven innings allowing just two runs and striking out six.  Unfortunately, Olson wound up with the loss after the Huskies’ bats came alive in the top of the eighth.

 

Matching Olson pitch-for-pitch all night was Duluth’s Ben Hughes.  The St. Olaf product allowed just one run in six innings to notch the first win of 2010 for the 1-2 Huskies.  The lone Stingers run came on an Isaac Ballou RBI single in the third.  After recording the first triple in Stingers history earlier in the inning, Willmar shortstop Mikey Reynolds came around to score on Ballou’s base hit.

 

Huskies third baseman Cody Asche broke the game open in the top of the eighth with the first home run surrendered by the Stingers in club history.  The two run shot to right put Duluth up 5-1, which ended up being the final score.  The Stingers wrap up the series with the Huskies Sunday night at Bill Taunton Stadium, with the first pitch slated for 6:05 pm.

 

Sunday is Books and Baseball Night at the ballpark, presented by Early Childhood Initiative.  Make sure to get to the yard early as the first 250 families with a child under the age of five in attendence will recieve a baseball book and have an opportunity to read with players and coaches before the game.  For tickets call 320-222-2010 or log on to willmarstigners.com.  The 2010 season is presented by Charter.